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| Republic of Zaire Repubilika ya Zaïre Republíki ya Zaïre Jamhuri ya Zaïre Ditunga dia Zaïre | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
 | |
| Capital and largest city | Kinshasa |
| Official languages | French |
| Dominant mode of production | Dependent capitalism |
| Government | Fascist military dictatorship |
• President | Mobutu Sese Seko |
| Area | |
• Total | 2,345,409 km² |
| Population | |
• 1997 estimate | 46,498,539 |
Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was a U.S. puppet state in Central Africa ruled by the multibillionaire Mobutu Sese Seko. George H. W. Bush described Mobutu as the USA's "best friend in Africa."[1]
History[edit | edit source]
Formation[edit | edit source]
In 1965, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, then a Lieutenant General in the national military, as well as a fascist and hardline anti-communist, overthrew the liberal government, creating a fascist dictatorship. This coup d'état was greatly supported by the United States of America, whose ruling class had an interest in creating a servile government which would repress communists and give the imperial core access to the country's vast natural resources.[2] In 1971, the country was renamed to the Republic of Zaire.[3]
Republic of Zaire (1971–1997)[edit | edit source]
The Republic of Zaire under Mobutu's regime, existing until 1997, was characterised by a highly dictatorial government, extreme anti-communism, and a rampant kleptocracy, with rates of bribery and embezzlement of government funds being particularly high.[4] The fascist government was also greatly supported by the Western bloc, including by United States of America,[5] the French Republic,[6] and the Kingdom of Belgium.[7][8] While most of the country lived in poverty, Mobutu became a multibillionaire.[9]
In 1977, Jimmy Carter airlifted Moroccan troops to Zaire to put down a rebellion.[9]
The fascist regime ended in the late 1990s, during the First Congo War, when after a large withdrawal of NATO support, major ethnic tensions, and foreign intervention, Mobutu's dictatorship was overthrown, and the country was remained to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a bourgeois-democratic government being created.[10]
Congo Wars and collapse[edit | edit source]
Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo in 1996 with US support and pillaged its natural resources, including gold, diamonds, tantalum, and niobium. They installed Joseph Kabila as the puppet ruler of the Congo and displaced half a million people from the Ituri region.[11][12]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (pp. 117–8). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]
- ↑ Stephen R. Weissman (2014). [https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/democratic-republic-congo/2014-06-16/what-really-happened-congo "What Really Happened in Congo The CIA, the Murder of Lumumba, and the Rise of Mobutu"] Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2022-8-15.
- ↑ “In the 1950’s, protests and riots lead to the country gaining its independence from Belgium and in 1960, Patrice Lumumba was elected prime minister. It seemed like things would finally improve for the Congolese.
However, the DRC has a huge abundance of natural resources such as copper, diamonds, cobalt, gold, uranium and oil. Lumumba’s resistance to Western powers’ attempts to continue mining lead to the West backing his opponents. In 1961 he was arrested, tortured and publicly executed. After a period of uncertainty, a man named Mobutu Sese Seko emerged as the president of DRC. Friendly to western powers, he built an extravagant life for himself with the money that came from foreign mining, including building himself palaces, collecting Mercedes-Benz and taking regular shopping sprees to Europe. When the Cold War with Russia came to an end in the 90’s, the United States and other countries became less dependent on the DRC for oil and Mobutu’s wealth drastically dwindled while he simultaneously began to face health concerns.”
Natasha Tworoski. "Democratic Republic Of Congo: A Brutal History of Conflict" PASA. Retrieved 2022-8-15. - ↑ “For 28 years, Mobutu Sese Seko has carefully and thoughtfully refined his system for transforming the public resources of Zaïre into private wealth, while using bribery, coercion and violence to thwart all movements for change. The consequences of his system, commonly known as ‘kleptocracy’ or government by theft, are well known: immiseration of the people; destruction of the nation's infrastructure; enrichment of Mobutu and his collaborators; the transformation of Zaïre into the prime staging ground for foreign intervention against other African nations. This article will focus neither on the consequences of kleptocracy nor the growing opposition which, for the past three years, has aggressively but so far unsuccessfully challenged Mobutu's rule.”
Steve Askin; Carole Collins (2007). Review of African Political Economy. 57, vol.20 (pp. 72-85). Taylor & Francis Group. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03056249308704005 [HUB] - ↑ François Soudan (2021-1-13). "DRC: How the CIA got Patrice Lumumba" The Africa Report. Retrieved 2022-8-15.
- ↑ "France Is Again Strengthening Ties With Zaire" (1977-4-17). The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-8-17.
- ↑ "Belgium link in Lumumba death" (2001-10-16). BCC. Retrieved 2022-8-17.
- ↑ Eduard Bustin (1987). The Foreign Policy of the Republic of Zaire, vol. 489. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716287489001006 [HUB]
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (p. 117). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]
- ↑ “n the 1970s, during the ruinous 30-year dictatorship of General Mobutu, periodic rebellions required the hasty insertion once again of Belgian and French paratroops to save European lives. From the mid-1990s the country split again, becoming the battleground for the largest African war in history, as armies and rebel groups from Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia and other countries crossed into the Congo to support one side or the other, or simply to loot the rich resources. Major operations ended – or paused – in 2002, but the old hatreds and constant lure of the Congo's natural resources continue to boil over into periodic outbreaks.”
Peter Abbott (2014). Modern African Wars (4): The Congo 1960–2002. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781782000778 - ↑ Maurice Carney (2022-06-17). "A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People" Black Agenda Report. Archived from the original on 2022-08-22. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
- ↑ Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-05-19). "International Court of Justice Ruled that Uganda Must Pay $325 Million in Reparations to the Democratic Republic of Congo—But What About U.S. and UK?" CovertAction Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-08-22. Retrieved 2022-12-24.